Handmade Jewelry Truly Handcrafted Jewelry
Mar 27, 2009 Handmade Jewelry, bracelets, earrings, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, necklaces, rings, unique jewelry, wholesale fashion jewelry, wholesale jewelry
Handcrafted Jewelry-Handmade Earrings-Native American Jewelry
Unique handcrafted jewelry by the artisans of Copper Reflections is unusual as we are the only ones making this type of handmade jewelry using techniques and designs that we have developed over the years. We have been designing and producing our artisan handmade jewelry and unique gift ideas since 1985. I started my wholesale fashion jewelry business in Vancouver, Canada. I was making jewelry and selling it on the street in Gastown,Vancouver. I began selling my unique jewelry crafts at retail craft shows in British Columbia and Alberta showcasing my handcrafted necklaces, unique handmade earrings, handmade bracelets and various styles of my handcrafted artisan jewelry and unique copper gifts. I was making custom jewelry for my customers. Later I moved to Ontario, Canada and began doing the craft shows there. I also started my business in the United States and traveled to the craft shows in New York State, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Illinois, Vermont and many others. I really enjoyed traveling, seeing new places, meeting other craftspeople and customers.
It was at a craft show in Columbus, Ohio when I met a man from Missouri who showed my how to do diamond cut. This greatly increased our sales. I have always appreciated his help teaching me this technique. Diamond cut made all our copper jewelry and gift ideas sparkle like there was diamonds on them. This made everything look more expensive. Being so unusual that most people had not seen it before combined with our reasonable prices have made our handmade jewelry business a great success.
I began to wholesale my artistic jewelry and my unique gift ideas throughout the United States and Canada at wholesale jewelry and gift shows focusing on wholesale fashion jewelry, wholesale costume jewelry and wholesale trendy jewelry. We came up with new techniques and artistic designs over the years that has made this type of handmade jewelry and copper gifts unique to us. We have received artisan awards for the originality of our unique handcrafted jewelry and for the quality of our unique craft. The designers and artisans of Copper Reflections make each piece by hand, individually handcrafting copper into unique modern jewelry. Our artisans bring to you the antique copper craft in modern designs and exceptional quality. We enjoy making them with great care hoping that you will enjoy wearing them.
Copper Reflections have many skillful and talented artisans who have 20 years of experience of handcrafting handmade jewelry and unique gifts. We do not use pre-made jewelry parts and put them together. Copper sheets come into our workshop in coils. They are sliced into the correct lengths for handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, unique rings, handcrafted necklaces, etc using guillotines. These copper sheets are then polished using buffing tools and steel brushing to achieve the matte and subtle effect on copper. Jewelry designs are made ready after hard months of work, many trials and experiments and are finally transferred onto the copper sheets. Handmade jewelry designs are then silver plated and special finishes are applied to make them last for years, so people can enjoy their handmade jewelry without any special care. There are actually three layers of finish on our unique jewelry to prevent the color changing or tarnishing over the years. These handmade jewelry pieces are then cut-out by hand using jewellers shears or cutting tools. At our workshop, Ms.Vildan has been cutting handmade earrings, handmade brooches and handcrafted hair clips for over 20 years. After the jewelry pieces are cut-out to their shapes, they are then meticulously diamond cut ( or bright cut ) so that they sparkle as if the handcrafted jewelry has had diamonds inserted in them. This makes our very reasonably priced wholesale jewelry look more expensive. We believe that because of this very reason, our unique handmade jewelry has been selling so well for almost 25 years. Our wholesale jewelry is very reasonably priced compared to their percieved value. Our handmade jewelry looks more expensive when you take their uniqueness and great quality into consideration, and compare that with their prices. They look very expensive but they are very reasonably priced. After the bright cut, another coat of finish is applied to our unique jewelry for extra protection. Handmade earrings, unique brooches, handcrafted necklaces, handmade bracelets, unique hair clips and handmade rings are then formed into their unique jewelry shapes. Copper sheets come into our work shop in coils of raw copper and go out as beautiful, unique, great quality and very reasonably priced handmade jewelry, handcrafted copper jewelry and wholesale jewelry. Our years of hard work has been very enjoyable for all of us at the workshop of Copper Reflections as we take great pride in our meticulous work and enjoy what we are doing. We are happy to know that there has been many customers over the years who have enjoyed our unique handmade jewelry for many years which has made all our hard work worthwhile.
Tags: copper jewelry, handcrafted artisan jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, Handmade Jewelry, unique handcrafted jewelry, unique handmade jewelry, wholesale jewelry, wholesale jewelry suppliers
Handmade Jewelry Photography Tips for Success
Nov 3, 2008 Handmade Jewelry, Uncategorized, fashion jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, home-based business, online marketing, small business, unique jewelry, wholesale fashion jewelry, wholesale jewelry
- Handmade Jewelry-Handmade Earrings-Animal Jewelry
I personally think that taking good photos is more difficult than making our handmade jewelry! Everything has to be perfect to do justice to your handcrafted artisan jewelry. A picture is worth a thousand words if you’re a writer; a picture is priceless if you are trying to market your jewelry and unique gifts online!
Handmade jewelry photography is too important to leave to chance. Waiting for the sun to be exactly right is okay if you don’t have anything better to do but time is money and both are in short supply! You don’t have to wait for the cloud to pass or the direct sun to be on the left. Actually most of our pictures have been taken in the wee hours of the morning, once you get everything right it’s like you just can’t stop! If you are serious about taking great pictures you need a studio set-up. It’s not difficult and not too expensive considering the online marketing advantages.
We made our own light tent by making a cube and covering it with white rip-stop nylon fabric, cost about $20 to make. Let me know if you need instructions. We use three 5200′K spotlights (daylight) about $35 each. We use studio stands (kinda costly) but swing arm lamps work too, just less adjustable. We bought a professional digital camera with a great macro lens, it hooks up directly to the computer and you just press enter so no shaky out of focus shots. The photos come up on the monitor so you can adjust the coloring, etc. You just set up the first item getting it just right, then replace it with the next item so photo shoots go quickly. Touch ups are at a minimum if the photos are taken well. There will always be those really shiny pieces that when zoomed in at 5000 times the actual size you will see yourself taking the picture. Smudging tools work well in those cases!
Take your time to learn about your camera and all the features, it will make your life much easier. Experiment with background colors but we have found that nothing shows our handmade jewelry as well as a white background. Make sure your designs stand out emphasizing the unique features of each piece. It is all about experimenting and finding the perfect settings for each photograph.
This maybe is extreme for someone just starting out but we have been making handcrafted jewelry and unique gifts for over 23 years and we have over 3,000 items! Photos are extremely important especially when marketing online and well worth the investment.
If you have any special tips or tricks that help to take great photos, I’d love to hear from you! We all need all the help we can get!
Best of Luck to everyone, Jenn
Tags: copper jewelry, handcrafted artisan jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, Handmade Jewelry, handmade jewelry photography, unique gift ideas, unique jewelry, wholesale jewelry
Handmade Jewelry Online Marketing Can be Frustrating!
Oct 6, 2008 Handmade Jewelry, Uncategorized, fashion jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, online marketing, small business, unique jewelry, wholesale fashion jewelry, wholesale jewelry
Handmade Jewelry-Handcrafted Copper Earrings-Dolphin Jewelry
Despite what all the so-called internet gurus say, internet marketing is not as easy as collecting money while you sleep. No, we did not wake up today to piles of money being deposited into our personal bank accounts. Not yesterday, not today and probably not tomorrow! But that dream is still there and we continue to work on it hoping that someday all our hard work will pay off, big time!
Until then we’ll continue to do what we have always done, sell handmade jewelry and unique gift ideas. I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t quit your day job quite yet. A lot of people get fed up with their life and want to start something new. One of the easiest looking things to do seems to be working at home on an internet business. Looks can be deceiving and frustrating, very frustrating. The list of things to do never stops with an online business and it takes a long time to establish that internet empire. If we didn’t have an existing business we would have been broke a while ago.
The only ones making money on the internet seem to be people telling you how easy it is to make a million dollars online. There are so many scams that it becomes frustrating trying to do an honest business online. When all is said and done, it seems the only thing left to do is put ads on your site and make a little money to pay a few bills. That really wasn’t the plan we had in mind. We have worked hard to get traffic to our site to sell our handmade jewelry and unique gifts; we don’t want people clicking off our page to some other jewelry supplier. We want visitors to our site to become our customers. We have a 90% re-order rate with our wholesale jewelry and gifts.
Perseverance is a virtue and today I’m feeling virtuous (that doesn’t happen all that often!). I’m not ready to jump at that dangling carrot, I’m going to stick with it and keep doing whatever needs to be done to get quality customers to our site. I’m not going to give in to the lure of easy money. If we made a successful business offline, we are sure to be able to make a successful business online.
We initially went online so we didn’t have to print an 80 page catalog, the expense was killing us as we are constantly adding new products and handmade jewelry lines and revising items to make them sell faster. The website is so easy to keep up to date. We have saved a lot of money, quite a few trees and made it easier for our customers to order. Our website has done its job.
Our main source of targeted customers comes from Wholesale Jewelry and Gift Shows, but more and more we are getting inquiries from around the world because of our website. It takes a lot of time and SEO work to get the targeted traffic so don’t waste your efforts on the wrong keywords and phrases. Do your homework and you’ll get lasting results!
The effort you put into your website shows to your customers and the search engines as well. Approach it like a “real world” business and you will do well.
Tags: articles, blogs, copper jewelry, fashion jewelry, handcrafted artisan jewelry, handcrafted jewelry, handmade bracelets, handmade earrings, Handmade Jewelry, internet marketing, online marketing, unique handcrafted jewelry, unique handmade jewelry, wholesale jewelry
